Why We Should Recover Cultural Apologetics

Dec 2, 2025

Josh Chatraw, the Billy Graham Chair for Evangelism at Beeson Divinity School, and Christopher Watkin, an Associate Professor at Monash University, delve into the concept of cultural apologetics. They argue that apologetics should reach the heart and hands, not just the head. The duo explores historical figures like Augustine and Pascal for insights on engaging culture. They emphasize adapting the gospel to various contexts and using personal storytelling to connect with skeptics, urging the church to embrace apologetics as a communal responsibility.

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ANECDOTE

Augustine's Insider-Outsider Critique

Christopher Watkin recounts Augustine's City of God as a model that critiques Rome by using the whole Bible as framework.
Augustine uses insider knowledge of Roman rhetoric to speak credibly while remaining biblically critical.

INSIGHT

Framework Over Party Packages

A biblical framework must be larger than party platforms to make meaningful political choices.
Without that larger framework, Christians risk being captive to shifting partisan package-deals.

ADVICE

Go Beneath Facts To Change Minds

Don't reduce rationality to facts alone; probe underlying social imaginaries that shape how facts are received.
Aim for conversations that change hearts and assumptions, not just spectacle debates.

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For many, apologetics is associated with arguments over rational, philosophical proofs. It’s a matter of the head instead of the heart, a debate over facts instead of feelings. But no matter what kind of apologetics you practice, you’re arguing according to a certain set of rules, in a particular language, attuned to what you expect to resonate in your time and place. In other words, it’s always cultural, never purely timeless. And it’s never purely rational.

We need to recover apologetics as a matter of the heart and hands as well as the head. We need to recover apologetics as a project for the whole church and not just for those who enjoy arguing. What we call cultural apologetics is not a new academic discipline. It’s a means to reconnect the church to the best biblical and historical resources for presenting and defending the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

That’s the vision behind a new book, The Gospel After Christendom: An Introduction to Cultural Apologetics, which I edited for Zondervan Reflective and The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. I’m joined now by two of the contributors, both fellows for The Keller Center. Josh Chatraw is the Billy Graham chair for evangelism and cultural engagement here at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. Visiting us here at Beeson this week is Christopher Watkin, associate professor of French and Francophone studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

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In This Episode

02:00 — Apologetics as Cultural: Head, Heart, and Hands
03:00 — Biblical Models for Cultural Apologetics
05:10 — Retrieval: Learning from Church History
09:16 — Augustine, Rome, and Biblical Critical Theory
13:00 — Diagonal Thinking, Third-Way Debates, and Politics
16:00 — Confrontational vs. Winsome Apologetics
20:00 — How Jesus Engaged Different People
26:00 — Apologetics for the Whole Church and for Pastors
34:00 — Retrieval Models: Pascal, Montaigne, and Modern Idols
41:00 — Audience Q&A: Out-Narrating, Doubt, Catholicism, Facts vs. Heart Issues
51:46 — Closing Reflections

Resources Mentioned

The Gospel After Christendom by Collin Hansen, Ivan Mesa, & Skyler Flowers
Telling a Better Story by Josh Chatraw
Biblical Critical Theory by Christopher Watkin
City of God by Augustine
Confronting Christianity Podcast with Rebecca McLaughlin
The Speak Life Podcast with Glen Scrivener
Truth Unites Podcast with Gavin Ortlund

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